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We've heard a lot about younger voters during this presidential campaign - about the issues they care about, how to reach them, whether they're motivated. But older Americans are more reliable voters, so how do they feel about the election? NPR's Don Gonyea reports.
DON GONYEA, BYLINE: Pennsylvania voter Mark Cicetti celebrated his 65th birthday at a Trump rally last month in Erie County. And like a lot of voters his age, he's worried about making his savings last now that he's retired.
MARK CICETTI: Everything you've saved for is going to just get eaten up by inflation. I feel it right now 'cause I'm not - I'm making an income, and my savings is just dwindling because it's becoming less and less valuable.
GONYEA: Men and women over 50 years of age cite the economy as their top issue in this election, hands down. But when it comes to choosing a candidate, a significant gender gap has emerged. A recent Michigan poll by the AARP demonstrates that gap clearly with voters over 50 - Vice President Kamala Harris had a 12-point advantage with women, while former President Donald Trump won men by 18 points. The AARP's Nancy LeaMond says candidates should be paying attention.
NANCY LEAMOND: They are America's most reliable voters. We know they're not a lock for either party, and they have a distinct set of concerns that they want to hear candidates address.
GONYEA: ...Things like the cost of prescription drugs, Social Security and the challenges of family caregiving. Pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson says it's important to note that Kamala Harris is polling near or even ahead of Trump with older women on economic issues, and they have a broad definition of what such an issue is.
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON: Who is going to make it so that I can retire when I thought I'd be able to? Who's going to make it so that I can stay in my home after I retire? Those are the sorts of questions that they're looking to the candidates to speak on. And I think it's because of that that you've seen Kamala Harris pull up closer to Donald Trump in the fight for who wins on the economy.
GONYEA: That's underscored by 65-year-old Harris supporter Dianna Walls at a recent event in Pennsylvania. She praises the current administration on the economy.
DIANNA WALLS: The lifting of the inability of Medicare to negotiate drug prices was key to making health care available and affordable. So keeping people alive, keeping people healthy.
GONYEA: Also driving the gender gap among older voters is reproductive rights. University of South Florida political scientist Susan MacManus says she hears that all the time in Florida, where voters will decide whether to codify abortion rights.
SUSAN MACMANUS: Older women were the ones that had to fight like crazy to get reproductive rights in. They remember the bad times, and they do not want to see any retrogression on the reproductive rights front whatsoever.
GONYEA: A prime example of that thinking comes from 80-year-old Gale Siegel at a rally in Bethlehem, Pensylvania.
GALE SIEGEL: I mean, I marched for all the women's rights, ERA, with my children. And it looks like here I am in this year, 2024, doing that again.
GONYEA: Of course, older women are not a monolith either, but AARP's LeaMond says there is one thing that kept coming up during their surveys - that older women feel invisible to public officials.
LEAMOND: And we think it's going to be very important as we reach the final days and Election Day that candidates at all level address the interests and concerns of older voters.
GONYEA: In those blue wall and Sunbelt swing states, where older voters make up an outsize portion of the population, they could be especially consequential this year because they do vote.
Don Gonyea, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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